Sunday, July 27, 2008

yeah, friday just had too much bikeness to fit it all in. had to sacrifice partycar & CM & gestalt for tgif kegs/band & bike film fest & post-party. BFF was solid, especially the live performance by Ines Brunn (holy sh*t!), Road to Roubaix, the waffle bike, and the cool music video by Bat for Lashes (mmmmm).

as for the friday NRLB, I think we have a new non-BTWD record - 26 people! damn! 27 if you include solo warrior altendorf. don't think there were any mechanicals and everyone had a sporting good time, despite the Industrial rd. bypass and lack of the 'cross section/bridge to nowhere. was cool to see a strung-out peloton along lagoon road/sierra pt pkwy - such was the size of the group that it looked "together" despite being spread out over a mile by the Hobinator's stretching of the elastic.

-SC

On Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 3:53 PM, Nils Tikkanen wrote:

Haha, bright pink? +1 for that alone.

+1000 for being in the city this weekend with all the cool kids.

-- party car first-timer

On Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 3:47 PM, Heather Whitney wrote:

plus, even if you aren't into hipster watching and sausage it's always fun to watch my face turn different shades of bright pink after a cider or two!

and who wouldn't want to spend their Friday night doing that?!

On Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 3:18 PM, Lina Mårtensson wrote:

Alrighty, I hear records were broken in terms of numbers of riders on non-BTWD! Sadly yours truly wimped out, but shall make sure that part deux of this important tradition is adequately attended: Partycar!

Those of you that may be new to this... here's how it works: - We meet at the grassy knoll @ Charleston & Huff, 17:17 (that's 5:17 for you 'murricans) - Ride our pretty bikes over to some liquor store to purchase le biere - Catch the 5:46 Caltrain - Upon arrival, proceed to Gestalt @ 16th & Guerrero where there's double-decker bike parking, lamb sausages (yeah yeah, I know it's more sf2gy to eat vegan kielbasa, but I like lamb, ok?), and more beer than a partycar full of sf2gers can drink in one night.

Since attendance records were broken in # of bikers today, let's try to break the record for partycar attendance as well! What better way is there to celebrate your first SF2G than with your first partycar?

Thursday, July 24, 2008

I thought we were all in for a nice mellow style bayway. I should have been tipped off something was amiss when the first riders pulling past Martha's arrived about 5 minutes faster than is the norm. I scarfed down the last bit of coffee cake and tossed out most of my tea and caught Trinh's wheel just as he hit Bayshore. We cruised up toward Paul ave. and I noticed there were some sweet bikes rolling around I don't think I've seen before of the Ti and Carbon variety( Moots, Parlee I'm talking to you among others ). We hit the final climb and I hung on Lorenzo's wheel for the duration(damn he has some fast climbing cadence). We hit the light and rolled past the Bayshore Caltrain stop. I believe at that point there were 2 off the front, Lorenzo and Hobe. I paced with them for a bit and decided I shouldn't kill myself just yet so started to drop back. Trinh blew past me followed by a rider on a red Bridgestone( or was it a Ritchey) with panniers. I grabbed the panniered riders wheel and cruised for maybe half a K. Not carrying anything like that load of cargo I sheepishly moved to the front thinking I could help him out, my fellow steel framed brethren in the non-space bike struggle to stay afloat. I also thought wtf, didn't someone say mellow? I could see the 3 tiny figures ahead and hoped to bridge up to them but never quite seemed able to bridge the gap. Once we got to the stretch of parking lots the sprinklers seemed to give the lead group pause and I managed to catch up. Trinh was slowly pedaling and I think I said the only thing I could think of as I passed, something like 'brutal'. From there I caught the 2 leaders at the light right around the time the FrenchGuy showed up ( sorry man, i forgot your name but you had full FDJ kit the first time i met you so you're forever FrenchGuy in my head ). A couple lights later FG asked about Scott's whereabouts and someone said he was in the chase group chillaxin (doh! that sounds sweet). From here on out Hobe pretty much dragged us all along at around 22MPH with the other 3 of us taking token pulls at the front. We got a brief draft from a bus around SFO and continued on rolling past the BART meetup at 7:25. Once we hit midway 3 of us stopped to refill our bottles, FrenchGuy went on ahead. While Hobe was taking a natural break Lorenzo came over and we both agreed that we were going at an absurd rate of speed and agreed that it was about all we could to to suck Hobe's wheel. We mused about dropping back We headed out and once we got to feral cat way all animals must have heard the whistling of the Hobinator up front and all but 2 wisely kept out of sight. We took the detour and returned to the normal route on Maple about a block after we reabsorbed FrenchGuy. Once FrenchGuy turned off Hobe disappeared, Lorenzo said something about Hobe having dropped his water bottle on the tracks, we theorized he got tired of dragging our slow asses along and likely opted to bopping onto 101 for the remainder. For much of the ride in my head i was debating whether Hobe is more like a turbine or just a big diesel engine(in Phil Liggett jargon). From there on out it was a quick turn past the marsh and EPA. I turned off at my usual spot and got to work 18 minutes faster than any other time previously.

I show a moving speed of 19.7, moving time of 2:03(from Martha's).

thnx!

-s

----

ksenya wrote:

the rest of the crew was not aiming for a 2 hr record breaking speed, 5 more minutes in martha's would have gotten you into that contingent.uneventful ride, marius again bore no gloves or socks on his hands but lost no pedal cranks this time. the industrial way was taken to bypass both the construction and the bridge to nowhere.

since apparently the 4k rule has been extended to 40k, i did the most chillaxin of all, but still made it to breakfast at no name.

This is totally off-topic, but somewhere after going back to sleep at 5am, I had a bizarre dream in which I was wandering around SF, ran in to Misha, realized that he hadn't left yet and so it was still early enough that I could make the ride if I wanted. I then realized that I was actually asleep, and this was a dream, and even if it were in fact still early enough in real life to make the ride, based on the amount of sleep I'd had I'd damn regret it if I woke myself up at that point, so I kept sleeping. Two points: (1) yes I dream about sf2g, (2) it's apparently possible to make rational decision about how much to sleep while asleep (I didn't know that). --eric

On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 9:28 PM, David Helder wrote: > > Exciting ride. I narrowly avoided getting pulled over at the Woodside/ > La Honda/Portola intersection. I realized at the bottom of the hill > that the guy on the motorcycle was also a cop and did a half-assed > semi-stop/U-turn thing. The cop stared at me. I thought he was going > to get me, but when I turned around, he was pulling over another > cyclist who must have just blown the stop sign coming off La Honda. > > David > > On Jul 21, 2008, at 11:29 AM, Misha Zatsman wrote: > >> Hey a few of are leaving from peets at 6:30 wednesday morning to ride >> in on skyline: >> http://groups.google.com/group/sf2g/web/route-skyline-50mi-2500 >> >> We're gonna try to get to google around 9:30, but will probably be a >> little later.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Todays stage was a cool and foggy affair. From around the Lagoon there were 3 riders off the front. I dropped back to the main pack for a less hammerific day once we traversed the hotel parking lots.

Lots of 20MPH+ efforts with just about everyone taking a turn at the front made this a little less than a chill effort.

The main field was composed of equal parts Google and non-G riders until Trinh peeled off to his secret lair halfway through.

David claimed to have never seen the feral cats the trail is named for, at one point claming the cats i pointed out were actually just rocks. David will be seeking psychiatric help on other future rides.

This is one of the fastest sf2g I have on record with an avg speed of ~17 and moving time ( from Martha Bros. ) of 2:21.

Friday, July 11, 2008

- A fearsome peloton of 11!- Trinh caught up making it 12!- Andre left SF later, arrived at G earlier, so maybe it was 13. He said "Hello" in passing. The Doppler effect could be observed. - Sunshine, perfect temperature, hella headwind.- A lead group of 3 made it in for breakfast by 9:15, others not far behind.